I am exhausted, in the best possible way though. Today I started the olive harvest. There is usually a team of us, working together to get the work done, the trees here are huge and you need people who are confident enough to climb up high and use their sticks to get the olives down.
I have always looked on in amazement to see them balancing on the branches, I prefer to be on the ground, I don't mind a bit of climbing but I don't feel confident going high up. Today it was only me and one other person and the wind was really strong. I watched as P climbed those branches and balanced each foot on a branch, hoping that they were strong enough to bare his weight.
If you look above you can just make him out in the branches, although all you can see is a black shape, but that's him. The wind was howling at times and I watched with my heart in my mouth at times, so much respect for what he does. I certainly don't have the courage for that, not now anyhow.
It really feels like winter here at the moment, so it feels good to be doing some real physical work. I look forward to this time of the year and especially now, knowing that this will probably be the last time I harvest the olives from these trees. The oil from these olives is exquisite, because the trees have been left to go wild. Perhaps next year I can ask the new owners to help with the harvest, but who knows what their plans are, so for now, I see this as the last time I will get to experience this.
We started by laying out the nets, as I live amongst the trees, we have to be creative sometimes in how we lay them, sometimes it is easier to just drape them over things, which we done for my outdoor kitchen area, above. I had already cut some canar sticks to use, to get the olives from the branches, so then it as time to get to work.
Harvesting the olives, is always such a wonderful workout for my arms and shoulders, although I really am feeling it, in my neck right now, as I have spend so much time looking upwards. Because of that, there is also the risk of getting an olive in the eye, which I can tell you is pretty painful. Today, only my left eye was the lucky one, which is pretty good going. (It wouldn't feel like, I had done any work if that didn't happen at least once lol)By the end of the harvest, I usually always end up with my eyes being a little bit irritated, as so much debris lands in them. But that's just part of the job.
We worked on one tree today, the one you can see above next to my caravan. This tree is pretty special to me, as my youngest was born beneath it (inside the caravan that is). After sorting the olives and making a bed for them where they will rest, until we take them to the mill next week, we finally got to see how much we have collected and we estimated then we harvested around 180kg from that one tree.
Not bad going for two people, in very high winds, I was certainly impressed. Tomorrow we will harvest the one closet to my truck, which has the largest quantity. It will take us a least 6 days to get all of trees done, I reckon. I will probably do some of the smaller ones on my own.
I am so tired right now, my body is longing to rest and I know that when my head hits that pillow, it will be lights out for me. Which is just what I need, after experiencing some sleepless night of late. So I am signing out, content to know that I will get the rest my body and mind so badly need. I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday x